When energy such as gasoline or electricity is supplied to a conventional gasoline car or electric vehicle, for example, a connector for energy supply is inserted into an energy receptacle provided at a quarter panel portion of the vehicle body so that energy is supplied to the vehicle through the connector. The energy receptacle is covered by a lid, which is opened through the user's manual operation when energy is supplied. Then, at the end of supply, this lid is closed again through the user's manual operation. In this manner, the operation of opening and closing the lid has to be manually done every time energy is supplied, which makes the energy supply operation troublesome. A technique of automatically performing such a lid opening/closing operation for simplifying the energy supply operation is disclosed, for example, in Japanese Patent Laying-Open No. 2005-273281 (Patent Document 1).
An unlocking system disclosed in Japanese Patent Laying-Open No. 2005-273281 is configured with a gasoline station-side device and a vehicle-side device. The vehicle-side device includes a reception portion receiving a signal from the gasoline station side, a refueling cap portion, and a lock/unlock control unit of the refueling cap portion. The gasoline station-side device includes a camera portion detecting a vehicle number of a vehicle coming into the gasoline station and a transmission portion comparing the detected vehicle number with vehicle numbers registered beforehand and, if there is a match, transmitting a vehicle signal to the vehicle side for unlocking the refueling cap.
According to the unlocking system disclosed in Japanese Patent Laying-Open No. 2005-273281, the gasoline-station side device detects a vehicle number, compares the detected vehicle number with data registered beforehand and, if there is a match, transmits a vehicle signal to the vehicle side for unlocking the refueling cap. This can save the vehicle user from performing an unlocking operation and automate unlocking of the refueling cap of the vehicle.
Patent Document 1: Japanese Patent Laying-Open No. 2005-273281